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6 Pages You’ll Want to Dogear in “The New Relationship Marketing”

Here goes my first book review. I’m starting off with Mari Smith’s latest book: The New Relationship Marketing, which is an awesome read on personal branding and social media.

I first picked up a copy a couple of weeks ago at my local library (because I still go to the library), but about half way through, overwhelmed by the urge to start underlining sections and dogearing pages, I returned it, ordered my own on Amazon, and have kept it in reaching distance of my desktop pretty much ever since.

Although Mari’s social media focus is slightly different from mine, and maybe different from yours, (she isn’t one for daily blogging, for instance, but she can be found on Twitter and Facebook everyday, where she has amassed a following of thousands and thousands of people), her book has plenty of useful tips for anyone looking to expand their online presence.

On that note, here’s a quick rundown of the six pages I keep going back to, and why:

Page 41: Ideas for optimizing your routine.

I love that she starts with this one right out the gate. And she provides the kind of tips you want to strive to follow, especially if your goal is to stay active in social media while still having a normal life (turn your computer off at 9pm? This sounds like a hard one, but I’m gonna try!) The lesson here: you can be active and engaging on social media without it taking over everything else. Sounds good to me.

Page 86: Be the face of your brand.

Whether you like it or not, you are the face of your brand. To help all of us put our best face forward, Mari explains why it is so important to have a professional headshot done every 12-18 months, along with a bunch of other helpful considerations you may have never thought of before (plus she has great before and after shots I think we can all relate to.) I found this section so helpful in fact, that I recently went to get my own headshots done! (Fancy, air-brushed pictures coming soon!)

Page 92: Connect through blogging.

If it made sense for me to dogear pages 92 through, like 97, I would. From hosting options to “sexy bookmarks,” and the best widgets for your site, Mari covers it all here in easy, bite-sized pieces of information. The greatest takeaway for me is that you can’t overlook, or underestimate the importance of details when it comes to setting up your social media sites. Every platform, every online space that y ou occupy is an opportunity for branding. Although she mentions briefly Google+1 in this section, I’d recommend visiting her blog (or Chris Brogan’s) for the full Google+1 low-down.

Page 119: Share your specialized knowledge.

Mari likes to drive the point home that the power of social equity should never be underestimated. This section for me serves as that feel-good reminder that we should always strive to be the best that we can be as we go forward in the world, that building a quality network takes time and (my favorite) that we must always remember to give back.

Page 143: Repurpose your content.

Throughout the book, I think one of the things I love best about Mari is that she does all the work for you. Could I think up a list of ideas to repurpose my content? Probably. But was I extremely happy to see someone had made a really good one for me? Big yes! Here she provides a genius list of tips for stretching out a concept over several posts as well as across various mediums to get the most bang for your idea (why not take that blog post and turn it into a PowerPoint or an interview?) and might I add, make the content more enjoyable for your readers.

There you have it, the six pages I can’t seem to get enough of. I’d love to hear from anyone else reading this book, or maybe you have another go-to guide for personal branding and using social media? Please share!

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